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Netflix to start streaming Disney movies

Netflix has signed a deal with Disney that will make the studio’s films available to Netflix customers for streaming. Don’t expect Disney’s new feature films for awhile: They won’t be available until 2016, when they’ll be released in the pay TV window — around half a year after they leave theaters.

The deal includes films from Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios and Disneynature. The New York Times reports that ”the deal does not include films from DreamWorks Studios, which has a theatrical distribution arrangement with Disney but relies on Showtime as a pay-TV partner. However, the deal will ultimately include movies from Lucasfilm, which Disney is in the process of acquiring.” (Antitrust regulators approved the Lucasfilm acquisition today.)

“High-profile Disney direct-to-video new releases” will be available for streaming starting in 2013, and older films like Dumbo and Pocahontas, are available today to U.S. Netflix members (though I couldn’t yet find them on Netflix’s streaming site).